The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

In this world, steam generators appeared more than ten years ago. At that time, this thing was a sensation. Many people thought that this thing represented the future of technology, but in the end they found that they didn't know where to use it.

Until a warden who always had a headache for prisoners escaping from prison felt that steam generators could help him manage the prison, so he surrounded the prison wall with a power grid to prevent prisoners from escaping.

Afterwards, after dozens of practical tests, everyone found that the steam generator combined with the power grid can achieve extraordinary results, so power grid security became the only use of the steam generator.

If it is said that before entering the cage city, the simple microphone and horn installed next to the elevator only made Leo feel curious, then the current electric light made him realize that the person who invented this thing has far more understanding of electricity than this The rest of the world, if you are lucky, this person will definitely become a pioneer in the use of electrical energy.

"Jean Valjean! Jean Valjean!" Martin may have become accustomed to electric lights, he didn't show too much surprise, after entering the room, he pushed aside all kinds of strange mechanical parts that were in the way on the ground, and walked to the stairs on one side of the room , yelled a few times upstairs, and after getting no response, he muttered a little irritably: "Damn! Didn't you tell him to stay here for a few days? This guy ran out again!" Said Then, he said apologetically to Leo and Jason: "Wait here for a while, I'll go out and look for him."

After finishing speaking, he quickly walked out of the house, and his figure disappeared into the dark corridor.

"Leo, this thing is really bright!" Relaxed Jason moved under the light bulb curiously, squinted his eyes, and looked up. After a while, his eyes felt a sting, and then he lowered his head and rubbed eyes, and said, "It's just a bit dazzling after looking at it for a long time."

"You idiot, who made you stare at it for so long." Leo cursed with a smile, and then looked at all kinds of strange machines piled up in the room.

On Leo's left hand side, there is a machine that looks like a piano, but instead of the strings corresponding to the keys, there are vacuum tubes that are as thick as fingers, and there is some kind of unknown energy flowing in the vacuum tubes. Liquid, looks very odd.

On the right hand side is a mechanical arm made of air pipes, steel rods and gears. The air pipe of the arm is connected to a small steam engine similar to the steam crossbow power device, but this small steam engine is far from being so delicate and light, but very heavy. , even if it is Leo carrying it, it is a bit difficult.

In addition, there is a machine similar to a phonograph not far away, a model similar to a glider in the old earth era is hung on the roof, and all kinds of complicated mechanical drawings, mechanical stereograms, etc. are pasted on the walls.

Although he hasn't seen this man named Jean Valjean yet, Leo already has a fixed impression in his heart that this man is definitely a self-taught mechanical genius.

"I don't like that guy." Jason said suddenly as Leo was walking around admiring the various interesting machines in the room.

Leo stopped, turned around, and asked Jason calmly, "I don't like him either."

"Do you know who I'm talking about?" Jason asked in a daze.

"Of course I know." Leo raised his head towards the door of the room.

Jason smiled, leaned forward again, and asked in a low voice, "Do you believe what he said?"

Leo looked at Jason in surprise, and asked, "Don't you believe what he said?"

Jason thought about it seriously, shook his head and said, "I don't think it's good. My mother told me that things that don't feel good are not good things."

"Your mother is right, I will listen to your mother in the future." Leo nodded with a smile, and then said in a low voice on purpose: "I don't like that guy just like you, just like that guy said, politicians It's all a piece of shit, and who's going to believe what shit says?"

Jason wondered, "Since you don't believe what he said, why..."

Leo directly confided his thoughts: "I want to know what the hell he wants to do, what exactly does he want to get from the doctor?"

"Doctor?" Jason was even more confused.

Leo casually picked up a spherical mechanical object from the table, looked at it in front of his eyes, and while studying its structure, he said: "Don't look at him from the beginning to the end as if he was trying to persuade me to carry out this inexplicable cooperation with him. , in fact, his target is always the doctor, and you and I are just extras."

"Is he coming for the doctor?" Jason didn't know why Leo thought so, but he believed what Leo said, so he was a little worried for the doctor, and said, "Should we inform the doctor?"

"Don't tell the doctor," Leo shook his head, and said, "The doctor has been so fascinated that he forgot his name, he can't hide anything, and I don't even believe that Catherine." To be a little absolute, he added another sentence: "At least it's not worth believing right now."

As soon as Leo's voice fell, his fingers seemed to touch a certain switch of the mechanical ball in his hand, and the mechanical ball separated the two sides from the middle part with a snap, and then the upper half of the shell opened to the surroundings like a flower.

Then he saw an exquisite small house driven by gears rising slowly from the lower half of the sphere, and every person and animal in the small house would make different movements as the gears turned.

After all the movements were done, there was another click, and the small house slowly sank into the hemisphere below, and the other half, which was like a petal, closed again, and then returned to a mechanical sphere.

"Wow! It's such an exquisite gadget. I'm definitely willing to buy one for ten gold shields." While exclaiming, Jason took it from Leo's hand and looked it over carefully, as if trying to find out what was going on inside. the mystery.

"It's indeed a beautiful gadget, but I'm more interested in the person who made it." Leo, who is used to extreme machinery such as space battleships, was surprised by the ingenuity of the gadget in front of him, but he didn't express it. It was too strong, but it aroused curiosity about the producer.

At this moment, the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground suddenly came from upstairs where there should be no one. Because the roof and floor were made of iron plates, the sound was very loud down below.

Leo and Jason glanced at each other, each took a Paneer battle ax from their waists, and walked directly upstairs.

The situation on the second floor is the same as that on the first floor. There are all kinds of weird mechanical devices, but the difference from the first floor is that most of these mechanical devices are complete and should be finished products, so the placement should be more careful. , far from being comparable to the random piles downstairs.

I saw a large workbench on one side of the room on the second floor against the wall. On the workbench were several dismantled small steam engines. The stand was fixed on the workbench, and under the spotlight, a figure was sitting in front of the workbench, buried in something.

Leo and Jason walked over. Although they didn't deliberately increase their footsteps, the footsteps were still very loud, stepping on the iron floor, pattering. However, the person sitting in front of the workbench seemed deaf and couldn't hear anything, continuing to do his own thing.

Soon, the two walked up to this figure. Jason raised his hand to pat the other person's shoulder to remind him of his arrival, but Leo grabbed his hand, shook his head, and then looked down at the workbench .

I saw that this figure was wearing a dirty overalls, and a leather helmet that resembled the flying cap of the old earth era covered the entire head. Judging from the situation just now, the sound insulation effect of this helmet is not bad.

In addition, he also wears a pair of very fine mechanical eyes. There are some fine gears around the eyes. The eye frame is a special device that is similar to a single-barrel telescope and can be retracted and adjusted. Judging from what he was doing now, these eyes should be able to magnify the objects in front of him, similar in function to the eyes on the doctor's mask, but more sophisticated.

At this moment, this person is using tweezers to carefully assemble the delicate machinery on the table. There are a lot of small gears in these machinery. Although I don't know what the machinery is ultimately used for, but in terms of complexity, It has far surpassed the mechanical ball downstairs.

At this time, the gears on the machine had been assembled to the last one. The man took a deep breath, stabilized his emotions, moved his stiff hands, then picked up the tweezers, clamped the small gears that were not much bigger than a grain of rice, and approached slowly. Install the position, insert it into the bearing, fix it, then pick up the cover that has been prepared on the side, cover it, and tighten it.

After finishing all this, the man let out a long breath, shouted a word of celebration in a strange language, then stretched himself, took off his eyes and helmet, revealing a young face in his early twenties .

Even after removing the things that obstructed vision and hearing, the young man still didn't notice the person standing behind him. His attention was all attracted by the things he created, and he picked up the mechanical device with the shell installed on the table. Put it under the light and play with it carefully.

"Can you show me?" At this moment, Leo suddenly said.

"Ah!" The young man was startled immediately, let out a scream, and couldn't help shaking. Fortunately, his hand was very steady and he didn't drop the mechanical device in his hand.

He turned his head to stabilize his mind, and saw Leo and Jason standing behind their bodies. Although there was fear in their eyes, they kept their faces as calm as possible, and said to them in the same stable tone: "If You want money, there are thirty gold flanges in the cabinet next to the workbench, if you want Hagen powder, I don’t have it here, if you want..."

"Damn it! Boy, we're not robbers." Jason cursed.

Hearing this, the fear in the young man's eyes lessened a little, and he asked again, "Are you here for shopping?"

"We came here with Martin." Leo said truthfully: "Your name is Jean Valjean! My name is Leo Dodd. Martin said that you have some good equipment here for us to use."

Hearing Leo's words, Jean Valjean frowned very slightly, as if he didn't have much respect for Martin. Although his eyes were well concealed, Leo could still see a look of disdain in his eyes.

"Where are the Martins?" asked Jean Valjean, looking behind them.

Leo explained: "He called you downstairs just now, but you were busy with your own affairs and didn't respond, so he thought you were not there and went to find you elsewhere."

"Damn it! I'm going to be scolded again." Jean Valjean cursed depressedly.

Leo pointed to the mechanical device in Jean Valjean's hand and asked, "Can I have a look?"

"Do you understand?" Jean Valjean handed the things to Leo arrogantly, and said, "Be gentle, don't break it, I finished it with great difficulty."

Leo ignored the young man's tone of voice, and took a look at the mechanical device in his hand.

I saw that this device was about the size of two palms, and the gears inside had been covered by a box made of iron sheet. There were some holes in the box, each hole corresponding to a number and symbol, and a long hole was opened on one side of the box. There is a window, and inside the window are seven roller-shaped gears.

Although the style of the box is a bit weird, it is still easy to guess what the device is for from the logo on the buttons above.

Under Jean Valjean's slightly surprised gaze, Leo skillfully pressed some buttons, then twisted the spring on one side of the box, and after twisting it to the limit, he let go, and saw the seven rollers on the long window It turned quickly, and finally stopped on a number one by one, forming a set of seven digits.

"This calculator is a very good thing! It can calculate addition, subtraction, multiplication and division within seven digits, as well as percentages. I think businessmen will be very interested in this thing." Leo returned the things in his hand to Jean Valjean, He also gave suggestions, saying: "It's just that this thing still has some shortcomings, that is, it cannot calculate accurate numbers after the decimal point. Once there are numbers after the decimal point, your calculator will have a one-digit error."

"Calculator?" Jean Valjean couldn't help thinking for a while when he heard Leo's words, and then said happily: "Yes, this thing is called a calculator! The name is very appropriate. Do you also know mechanics?"

Leo told the truth, "I don't understand, but I know how to use it." Then, he pointed to the spotlight on the workbench, and said, "The spotlight is well done."

"Spotlight, it seems that you really know how to use it." As a mechanic, Jean Valjean not only likes to communicate with his colleagues, but also likes others to appreciate his work, so his attitude towards Leo has become cordial Quite a few, unlike at the beginning, there was a kind of defensive arrogance in his expression and words.

"Why don't you promote this kind of lamp in the cage city?" Leo asked again: "In the dark environment of the cage city, this kind of lamp is the most suitable."

Leo's words seemed to hit Jean Valjean's sore spot, his tone immediately cooled down, as if he was answering Leo's question, but he deliberately pointed behind Leo and said, "It's because someone doesn't want to promote it."

Leo turned his head, looked at Martin who was coming up from the stairs, and asked, "Why?"